


sit in and watch the sunlight fade (its getting late)

by spectresister (awkwardTurtleduck)



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, Growing Up Together, Pre-Canon, Title from a Hozier Song, Trans Male Character, its just fluffy gina n jake!, jake is trans and you can rip that out of my cold dead hands, their parents are mentioned briefly but they aren't IN the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 00:18:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardTurtleduck/pseuds/spectresister
Summary: He looks over at Gina; she’s sitting on his floor, idly pulling at threads from a blanket she dragged off his bed and flipping through a magazine, when it hits him. He wants to -has to- tell her.





	sit in and watch the sunlight fade (its getting late)

The first time he and Gina have a serious discussion - outside of the realm of their parents - is when they’re 14. Jake's sitting on his bed, fiddling with his collapsible mini sphere. The sun is spilling into his room, casting the room in a honey glow as the sun sets. He looks over at Gina; she’s sitting on his floor, idly pulling at threads from a blanket she dragged off his bed and flipping through a magazine, when it hits him. He wants to - _has to_ \- tell her. 

“Gina.” 

“Mm.”

“Ginaaa.”

“I’m listening, kiddo.” Her eyes lift from the article she’s reading for a moment and flit back down. He knows that’s the equivalent of her tossing the magazine into a fire to pay attention. 

“Okay,” he pauses. He notices her eyes don’t move from their place in the magazine, but she doesn’t look up. She never pressures him to talk before he's ready. He likes that about her. (“ _Um, there’s a LINETTI of things to like about me. Ha, it’s like litany but it’s my_ name”) 

Jake decides to ease into it. 

“I’m not a girl.” 

Nice. 

This brings her eyes up from their station on the magazine and up to his. He feels sweat beading at his hairline. She maintains eye contact with him for seventeen hours (six seconds) before nodding. 

“Okay.” 

He feels relief course through him. She looks at him with a sort of seriousness he hasn’t seen since he told her about his father leaving, since she was stony faced at her father's funeral. 

“Does me calling you 'girl' make you uncomfortable?”

He lets out a deep breath and shrugs. 

“Sometimes? I dunno. You can still, like, say it. If you want. But, uh-“

“Okay,” she cuts off his rambling. He’s endlessly thankful for Gina Linetti. 

Despite her (immediate!) acceptance, Jake knows that she’s confused, that she doesn’t know what to say in this situation. He knows that they’re both floundering, that she’s far too proud to ask him the questions that are in her head. That she doesn’t want to cause his emotions to shutter off, like they so often do, when he feels too vulnerable. They're too alike, he thinks. 

“I’m a boy. I, uh,” he clears his throat, forcing himself to keep making eye contact with her. “I want to go by Jake.” 

“Ah, Jacob-"

“How biblical!”

Gina snorts and finally closes the magazine sitting on her lap. She reaches a hand up to place on the leg that he, until now, didn’t notice was jiggling wildly. Her touch on his knee settles him. 

“Thank you for telling me.” She sends a soft smile his way and he grins back at her. 

“You’re the only one who knows.” He sees her eyes widen a fraction, but her shock is replaced with a smug smile. 

“Uh, duh. You know I'm first in all matters either life-changing and-slash-or dramatic," she says. She pauses for a moment. "I am a lil surprised you haven’t told Karen yet, though.” 

He shrugs. “‘s easier to tell you.” she pats his knee, and then stands up, frowning down at him. 

"This is the longest I've been nice to you in one sitting. It's gross."

Jake blinks at her for a moment before dissolving into laughter. She belly flops onto his bed and kicks him in the shins until he stops laughing. They lounge in the dying sunlight, Gina watching the shadow of his blinds fading as the minutes tick by.

“Can I still paint your nails?”

“Uh, doi.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!  
> i'm sorry if this was a lil rough, i haven't legitimately written anything since, like, 2015. whoops. i just had a need for gina and jake friendship AND trans jake that was not being met lmao 
> 
> feedback is greatly appreciated!!


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